Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Daily Lean Tips Edition #69 (1026-1050)

For my Facebook fans you already know about this great feature. But for those of you that are not connected to A Lean Journey on Facebook or Twitter I post daily a feature I call Lean Tips. It is meant to be advice, things I learned from experience, and some knowledge tidbits about Lean to help you along your journey. Another great reason to like A Lean Journey on Facebook.

Enable
people to move forward in their work by committing appropriate resources,
removing obstacles, helping them work across boundaries, and aligning
processes, structure, and systems.

Lean
Tip #1037 - Help Employees Engage Others.

Encourage
those you work with to reach out and engage others with similar goals. Remind
them that goals can be created independently, but achieving them almost always
requires help and support from others.

Lean
Tip #1038 – Teach People How to Manage Time and Energy Wisely.

Coach
employees to fully engage in the task at hand, focus on the important rather
than the urgent, avoid distractions, and create balance and renewal in the
achievement of the goal. Help them learn to say no to urgent requests or
terrific ideas that aren’t aligned with the important work of the team.

Lean
Tip #1039 - Identify Specific Motivators and Adjust Accordingly.

Discuss
with employees their extrinsic motivators, and identify opportunities and
implications to bolster the achieving cycle. If they are motivated by
recognition, identify ways to give meaningful praise, show approval for their
work and team behaviors, or commend them for achievements along the way. Find
ways to acknowledge them in front of their peers and express appreciation. If
they are motivated by rewards, identify both economic and noneconomic rewards
that you can give as a consequence of achievement.

Lean
Tip #1040 - Turn Engagement into Action

Engagement
for the sake of engagement is just that. Happy employees are good, but happy
employees that contribute to the business by performing in exceptional ways are
better. It’s also critical to remind employees and management that engagement
is a two way street – the company will do great things for employees and
employees will do great things for the company. Very few companies get this
right, but those that do create a virtuous cycle of employee engagement where
the company does more for its people and the people do more for the company
which in turn causes the company to do even more for its people.

Lean
Tip #1041 - Improve Your Communication Methods and Systems

The
prevailing communication system in most organizations is infrequent and one way
in nature. In other words, people don't get a lot of information or feedback
about how they are doing or how the organization is performing, and when they
do, this information is more often than not negative. The net results of this
cultural commonality is that most employees see the existing meetings,
newsletters, and bulletin board postings as a waste of time, whether you are
aware of this or not. I've even seen organizations do more damage than good in
their attempts to keep people informed because of the type of information that
was shared (and not shared) and how they chose to share it. Coordinate the
different group events that you have, measure event effectiveness, and take
action to make improvements where they are needed.

Lean
Tip #1042 - Measure Internal Customer Satisfaction

Some
organizations don't measure and trend internal customer satisfaction at all,
and those that do tend to do it only once a year at best. The high performance
organizations however regularly trend and review their performance in the areas
of employee retention, complaint levels, and internal satisfaction (perception
survey) scores. If you want to change your existing work culture, you have to
assess the degree to which your people feel that the existing work systems are
supporting such a change, and you also need a gauge of where your work culture
currently is - what your people think and believe about the organization. Review
these measures monthly, identify system changes (such as those mentioned in
this list) to affect those scores, and take action to put the highest priority
system changes in place. Also, don't forget to identify and remedy the sources
of internal customer dissatisfaction.

Each
day, your existing culture is either moving closer to, or further away from,
the type of culture that you want it to be. Cultures are a system in themselves
- they have momentum, and they are either spinning in a negative or positive
direction. Desired, or undesired, behaviors and work practices are being
reinforced on a daily basis by the work systems you have in place right now.
Until you recognize this, you won't be motivated to identify and change those
systems that are reinforcing those things that you don't really want to
reinforce.

Lean
Tip #1044 - Create a Safe Learning Environment.

It's
the trainer's responsibility to create a non-threatening environment for
learning. The most effective way to achieve that is to establish a relationship
with the trainee. People skills are vital to establishing a relaxed and
friendly learning environment. Take the time to engage in conversation with the
newcomer, asking about his/her family, hobbies and interests, and don't forget
to share your own. Professional business settings are comprised of human
beings, so act like one...and treat the newly hired person as you would like to
be treated.

Praise
and positive feedback reinforce and affirm the efforts of everyone. Expect and
provide positive interactions and feedback. There are no training shortcuts,
therefore, allow time and repetition to bring the results everyone wants. Avoid
the temptation to dictate and micro-manage the learning timeframe. Setting and
expressing unreasonable timeframe goals are among the biggest roadblocks to the
new hire success.

Lean
Tip #1046 - Measure Before You Manage

Accountability
is fundamental to effective management, but it’s impossible to achieve it
without tracking each department and individual progress against very specific,
measurable goals and objectives. Every element of your business should be
measured – marketing, support, operations, sales, finance, engineering,
employee performance, and so on. You first need to determine the right metrics
and then make sure you have all the tools you need for measurement.

Lean
Tip #1047 – Avoid Unrealistic Metric Targets

Many
organizations set targets without any thought to current performance, process
stability or process capability. Industry benchmarks are helpful, but before
applying these benchmarks to an organization, the team should analyze current
performance to ensure that unrealistic targets are not set. Unrealistic targets
create resistance within an organization and impact team and people
performance. In some cases, they also lead to data manipulation or incorrect
reporting.

Before
setting any targets, the metrics team should ensure that processes are stable
and that process capability can be measured in a reliable manner. Process
capability should be measured from the customer's perspective. If teams do not
consult the customers, they may find that clients are still unhappy even when
targets are consistently met. Involving customers at each stage of target
setting helps teams set realistic and achievable targets that will meet
customer's expectations.

Lean
Tip #1048 – Avoid Too Many Metrics and Reports

Many
organizations generate a lot of metrics and reports that nobody uses.
Sometimes, it is even difficult to track who is actually the owner for what is
being reported. All reported metrics should be critical to the business, not
simply ones suggested by best practices or textbooks. Efforts should be made to
identify a small and balanced set of metrics that meets the organization's
needs, and are cost effective to maintain and run. All existing metrics should
be assessed with key stakeholders to understand the relevance and importance of
each. Redundant metrics should be discarded.

Lean
Tip #1049 - Remember that Accountability Starts at the Top

Business
leaders don’t always recognize how closely employees will follow their example.
But if you want your workers to take goal-setting seriously, you should be
prepared to share your own goals – as well as how you came out on delivering on
them at the end of the quarter. Such transparency shows your team that you are
in the trenches with them, making every effort to achieve what you set out to
do – even if your targets were off.

Keep
in mind that you will need to reevaluate and adjust your metrics as your
business priorities change. Every week, month, and quarter is a new opportunity
to test and refine your ability to set and track metrics that will drive
growth. When you invest time and thought into setting, monitoring, sharing, and
refining your metrics, you’ll be amazed at how much more in tune you are to the
state of your business, and how much more easily you can make the critical
decisions that can catapult your business’ success.

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Tim McMahon is the Founder and Contributor of A Lean Journey Blog. This site is dedicated to sharing lessons and experiences along the Lean Journey in the Quest for True North. The blog also serves as the source for learning and reflection which are critical elements in Lean Thinking.

Tim is a Lean practitioner with nearly 20 years of Lean manufacturing experience. He currently leads continuous improvement efforts for an innovative leader who brings light and data to millions of spaces around the world.

Tim McMahon is a member of ASQ Influential Voices who facilitate discussions regarding quality matters globally.